


The Man who Has Everything (and Nothing)

by tisfan



Series: Imagine Tony and Bucky 2018 [11]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anna Jarvis mentions, Birthdays, Edwin Jarvis mentions, Fluff, M/M, Recipe, SO MUCH FLUFF, and nothing, the man who has everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-08 18:34:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14699895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tisfan/pseuds/tisfan
Summary: What do you get for the man who has everything?





	The Man who Has Everything (and Nothing)

**Author's Note:**

> for prompt: Yay! Happy Valentine's day! I like to imagine that all of Tony's past relationships didn't get him anything since he's the 'guy who has everything' but Bucky is determined to show his love! Can you do a ficlet based on that?
> 
> A/n -- given that I just picked the prompt up, and our fave’s birthday is coming up, I made a slight alteration (PS – this is a legit lemon cake recipe from my grandmother’s recipe book)

There were three different kinds of birthday presents, Tony had decided a long time ago.

There were the kind that came from his mother, or the children of his parents’ business friends, from his business rival/friends. They were the ones to show off the wealth that the other person accumulated and really, as far as Tony could tell, had nothing to do with him at all, except that he was a fancy name that they could dangle off the gift, like see, see what I can afford to buy for Tony Stark.

The man who has everything…

There were the kind that came from all the people who felt obligated to give him a gift -- underlings and lower tier managers. They were the gifts that he didn’t care about, that usually had nothing to do with him at all. People didn’t know him particularly well, didn’t know his preferences, didn’t care to know those things. They were a box to unwrap and a thank you note to get Pepper to write and she’d always be exasperated with him. Especially since most of those gifts ended up being put in baskets and sent off to the local cancer ward or something.

The man who has everything…

And nothing.

Some gifts were good. Rhodey went out of his way to make some sort of bad joke and put it in a box. Jarvis had somehow always managed to give him something he wanted, and a few times when Tony’s parents wouldn’t notice, they had cake down in the kitchen, he and Jarvis and Anna. Every year Happy got him a gift card to Starbucks. Honestly, Tony could probably buy Starbucks outright and rename it with all the gift cards he had to that location. (He had, actually, considered it. Because it would be funny.)

The man who has everything… and nothing.

Honestly, Tony didn’t want gifts, he didn’t care about gifts. Not really.

And while he’d had countless lovers, relationships, friends, and people who showed up to his parties… most of them didn’t really bother to buy him a present, anyway.

It wasn’t like he wasn’t a billionaire. Even the very few people he believed might actually genuinely like him, they all knew that he could buy anything, and everything, that he wanted.

So, why bother.

There really wasn’t much to celebrate, either. Birthdays were random, they were pointless. They were a number on a piece of paper.

Tony hadn’t made a big deal out of his birthday since the year he’d almost died of palladium poisoning, and really, he was beginning to think that he was just happier that way.

He had a boyfriend, who was unexpectedly dear to him.

Teammates that he liked, and who mostly tolerated him. He had his workshop. He had a purpose.

He was happy.

He _was_.

He didn’t need a damn present.

Bucky almost always brought him coffee in the morning, that was just their thing, so Tony didn’t think anything of it, aside from to have a sip, sigh orgasmically, and watch through lidded eyes as his boyfriend made _that face_.

“Happy birthday,” Bucky said, after Tony put his cup down, having drained it to the bottom in a few long gulp.

“Ug, don’t remind me,” Tony said. “I’m already robbing the cradle.”

“I’s born in 1917, Tony, you know that, right?” Bucky said. He flopped back onto the bed and Tony rolled neatly into the dip created by his body. “If anyone’s robbing anything, it’s me.” He kissed Tony thoroughly, distracting him from all things birthday related for a few minutes. The kiss, honestly, was probably a better present than anything else. Luckily for Tony, it was also a renewable resource, and he took advantage of that to kiss his boyfriend a few more times.

“Yeah, well. You still _look_ twenty-seven,” Tony said. “Which means that I’m way past the creepy half-my-age-plus-seven rule.”

“You’d need to be ten years older, to even get out of my creepy range, so let’s just agree that it doesn’t apply, and you can open your present,” Bucky said.

“You didn’t have to get me a present,” Tony protested.

“I know,” Bucky said. “That’s why it’s a _present_.” Bucky handed him a very light box wrapped in brilliant gold and red paper.

Tony worked the paper off, slowly. Bucky was a shredder, yanking paper and ribbons free with glee every time he got a present, and it drove him absolutely mad to watch Tony slit each piece of tape precisely and to carefully peel off the paper. It was why Tony did it, because he was a bit of an asshole, even on the best days.

At the bottom of the box, there was a single index card, old and yellowed, the penmanship painfully neat, the ink faded. Clipped to the card was a polaroid.

“What is--”

Anna and Jarvis looked out of the picture at him, each of them had one hand on Tony’s shoulders. He was all of five or six years old, and he was blowing out the candle on a one layer cake. He didn’t specifically remember the birthday, but he remembered the cake. He’d never had anything like it, not since Anna had passed so long ago. Light, lemony cake, topped with fresh berries and clotted cream.

The index card, written in Anna Jarvis’s neat hand, had ingredients on one side, and method on the back.

 

 _3          cups all-purpose flour_  
1          tablespoon baking powder  
¾         teaspoon salt  
3          cups sugar  
1          cup unsalted butter, room temperature  
½         cup shortening, room temperature  
5          large eggs  
1          cup whole milk  
6          tablespoons lemon juice  
1          lemon, zested  
  


_Method_  
Preheat oven to 350°F.  
Butter and flour 2 loaf pans or one large Bundt pan.  
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl. Set aside.  
Cream together butter, shortening and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating until well blended after each one.  
In three additions, add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix in lemon juice and zest.  
  
Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans until pan is warm but not hot. Turn cakes out onto racks, serve with berries

Tony was shaking when he put the card down. “Where did you find this?”

“Library, actually,” Bucky told him. “I was readin’ an Agatha Christie novel and it fell out. Someone’d been usin’ it to mark their place, I guess.”

Jarvis had always liked mysteries, and Anna had read them to him before bed, in her story-teller’s voice. Sometimes Tony had sat with them for a while. He liked being able to solve the mystery before the book ended. Even at six, they were hardly a challenge, but he liked them anyway.

“I… been practicing.”

“Practicing what?”

“The cake,” Bucky said. “It’s your special cake, and… downstairs. I made one for you.”

Absently Tony picked the card up from his gift box and went to tuck the recipe and its precious picture inside.

He read the card.

_To Tony Stark, a man who has everything._

_Including my heart_

_Bucky Barnes_

 


End file.
